Recall Nazri immediately, says veteran diplomat after ambassador's MAGA stunt at pro-Trump rally

A veteran diplomat has called on Putrajaya to recall Nazri Aziz as Malaysia's ambassador to the United States after he was photographed proudly holding a pro-Donald Trump sign while attending a victory rally for the US president last month.

Dennis Ignatius, who last served as the Malaysian ambassador to Canada, described Nazri's behaviour as "shameful and unprofessional".

"Very unbecoming for any ambassador to behave in such a manner. It goes against established protocol, diplomatic practice and good sense.

"Even the US ambassador here does not go about with MAGA hats and the like or stoop to such fawning behaviour. Nazri should be recalled immediately," Ignatius, who has more than three decades of experience in the foreign service, told MalaysiaNow.

Nazri, the Umno man who was controversially appointed to head one of Malaysia's most important foreign missions less than three months after Anwar Ibrahim came to power, was photographed holding a sign with the slogan "Make America Great Again" (MAGA), Trump's rallying cry that has come to symbolise everything from the imposition of trade tariffs to the deportation of millions of immigrants.

"We’ve made it for the MAGA Victory Rally for President Donald Trump the day before," reads the caption to Nazri's photo, which his wife posted on Instagram on Jan 21.

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The post has sparked a flood of comments on social media, especially in the wake of Trump's recent stunning proposal he unveiled alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to invade Gaza and resettle millions of Palestinians in neighbouring Arab countries.

Ignatius said Nazri's actions showed the declining standard of the Malaysian foreign service over the years.

"How far we have fallen from the glory days of Malaysian diplomacy under 'King Ghaz'," he said, referring to the late Ghazali Shafie, the seasoned diplomat and politician who served as foreign minister in the early 1980s.

"But this is what happens when we send a man who is unqualified and ill-equipped for the job to represent us in one of the most important capitals in the world," Ignatius added.

Nazri's appointment as Malaysian ambassador to the US in February 2023 was a departure from the policy announced in Pakatan Harapan's first term under Dr Mahathir Mohamad of only appointing career diplomats to these posts.

In 2018, Mahathir's government sacked politician diplomats appointed by the previous Najib Razak administration, most notably the then ambassador to Indonesia, Zahrain Mohd Hashim, who was replaced with a career diplomat.

Nazri himself had spoken out against the policy to bar politicians from being posted as ambassadors abroad, saying it was an example of PH "playing to the gallery".

"So this became a low-hanging fruit and they came up with a charter that diplomats should not be chosen from among MPs," he had told MalaysiaNow in 2021.